Everything That is Written

Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.” The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about. (Luke 18:31–35, NIV 1984).

My Musings – Something He could never have orchestrated if He were a mere man. With or without help. And clearly the disciples, who “did not know what he was talking about,” would have been no help at all.

“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

“Surely, he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

“He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people, he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.”

“Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53, NIV 1984).

My Advice – “The Old Testament contains sixty major prophecies and 270 ramifications about the Messiah. Jesus fulfilled every one of these predictions. The probability of Jesus fulfilling merely eight of the sixty major prophecies is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. To put these odds in perspective, imagine that the entire state of Texas is covered with silver dollars two feet deep and one of them is marked. All of the silver dollars are then thoroughly mixed. A blindfolded man is then instructed to reach down and pick up the marked coin on his first try. The chances of that occurring are the same as Jesus fulfilling just eight of the sixty major prophecies. But consider, He fulfilled them all! The probability of Jesus not being the Messiah is mathematically impossible.” (Source: More Than a Carpenter, Josh McDowell).

“Who has believed our message?” We shouldn’t bet against the odds by not believing.